Hi - I'm the proud owner of an 09 Civic LX-S sedan. This is my first winter with the car and I want to get some decent snow tires. I'm looking for your thoughts on these three questions. Thanks for the help!

1- People seem to be very happy with Blizzacks. This is a no-brainer tire to go with, right?

2- Do you prefer to have a designated set of winter tires/wheels to just swapping out the tires each season? Seems like quite a few trade-offs in terms of up-front versus long-term costs.

3- I found a local seller with lightly used set of Blizzack WS60's at 195/55/15. I know these are an inch smaller than my stock rims, so I would have to get a set of donuts to match, but I wanted to confirm that these would fit and work appropriately on my car.

Thanks,
Ruth

 

First of all, there are two kinds of Bridgestone Blizzak tires. Some, such as the WS60 and WS70, are "studless snow and ice tires" and do exceptionally well on snow and ice. Others, such as the LM-22, LM-25, and LM-60, are "performance winter tires" trade off a slight amount of grip on snow and ice for slightly better handling on days that are not quite so cold. The harsher your winters, the more likely the "studless" category is the way to go.

The WS60 and WS70 are among the best in the studless snow and ice category. The Continental ExtremeWinterContact and the Michelin X-Ice Xi2 are two other excellent entries in this category. All of these tires are outstanding. You can see a side-by-side test of them on the Tire Rack website at http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=125

Yes, there are trade-offs. I have a separate set of winter wheels dedicated to my winter tires. The big advantage of doing this is that the tires don't have to be mounted and balanced twice a year (otherwise typically costing $80-100) if you switch tires twice a year. The disadvantage is the cost of an extra set of wheels, but you can easily recoup the cost of a set of steelies or cheap used wheels in one year.

I would not get those. The difference is 5-6 percent, up to an inch and a half in diameter, and that's quite substantial a difference in the tire world. I would instead get tires that fit your car, such as 205/55-16 or 215/45-17. The Tire Rack says that 205/60-15 and 195/65-15 will also fit.

You also should be careful when buying used tires. I've had some bad misrepresentations when people say tires have "90 percent tread" or are "lightly used". Sometimes they really are, but sometimes they overestimate the tread depth. An actual measurement is best. Also, winter tires are at their very best when they are at full tread, and the Tire Rack recommends replacing them when they still have 6/32" of tread, which is significantly more than for summer or all-season tires. It also helps to understand the construction of the Blizzak, because one design feature disappears when the tread is worn. The Blizzak has a dual compound design. The outer 55 percent of the usable tread is a multicell compound, which acts like a sponge to soak up moisture when driving on ice, but the inner 45 percent does not have that feature and thus is not as effective. So when you buy them used, the tread already used was using the multicell compound, the best part of the tire.

HTH

 

i have the lm25's on my 99 civic, i have absolutely no problem driving in snow, even up to the mountain to go boarding, they are also amazing in any winter conditions, like a decent summer tire during summer, i cant say enough good things about them

 

Highly recomend the ws60's for the winter

 

ws60 are great snow/ice tires but would wear out fast on highway. For everyday use I would take LM

 

Not a big fan of the Blizzak. You can do better. They're great in the snow but pretty lame on dry roads.

And I definitely would walk into used ones very skeptically, for the reasons mentioned.

 

winter tire worn half the tread is a garbage. If you look at the snow tire you'll see what grabs the snow.

 

how do I know? I race with them http://icerace.com/sl.htm in a street legal class and on the worn tires I couldn't even pass old vw golf on the new WS60. (I drive evo8 lol)

 

That hasn't been my experience at all. But they're only on the car for three months a year so they don't get a huge amount of mileage. They last for years and years, even with highway use.